Welcome! You have accidentally reached the blog of a heteroclite follower of Jesus: dave wainscott. I'm
"pushing toward the unobvious" as I post thinkings/linkings
re: Scripture, church and culture. Hot topics include: temple tantrums, time travel, sexuality/spirituality, U2kklesia, role of the pastor, God-haunted music/art..and subversive videos like these.

Friday, June 27, 2014

Up on the Hillside (1972) Bruce is obviously on the path to Christianity here. There is an inevitability to this song. He hears the call of the cross, but like Jonah, he sees the danger of that path. Though for Jonah the danger in the end was that he was unable to have the forgiveness of God.

Up on the hillside you can see the cross shineOut in the alley hear the hungry dog whineYou and I, friend, sit waiting for a signSee how the sunset makes the lake look like wine

Over the mountain I can hear myself calledI want to come running but my window's too smallThe cliffs are so high and I might fallWhat were you saying? -- oh, it's nothing at all

Yes, the world's in convulsions and the weather is fineBuicks get bigger and five cents costs a dimeI must get going, you know, there's not much timeThe road is waiting and I'm running out of rhymeUp on the hillside, see how the cross does shineby Don Berg:

Night Visions (1973)In 1973 Bruce reaches his “Moment of Surrender.” His album Night Visions is suffused with dark images of a man in crisis. A man who is trapped in visions of the night, looking for the dawn. The songs “Mama Just Wants to Barrelhouse All Night Long”; “Clocks Don’t Bring Tomorrow, Knives Don’t Bring Good News”; “When the Sun Goes Nova”; and “The Blues got the World...” paint the picture of descent into crisis of the singer. Even the song Foxglove, and instrumental is named after a toxic plant (which in it’s own moment of surrender can be synthesized into the life-saving drug digitalis. I find a lot of parallels between this album and the U2 song “Moment of Surrender.”

Bruce sings:I've been in paris doing what the frenchmen do

He says if we burn up the roof from above usWe surely will see the light and maybe more

Bono sings:I tied myself with wireTo let the horses roam freePlaying with the fireUntil the fire played with me

Bruce reaches his moment of Surrender in the song “You don’t have to play the horses:”So we wait beside the desertNothing left to give awayNaked as the Hanged Man's secretsNothing left to do but pray...

Oh God I don't know where to step nowHelp me find the right road please

For Bono it comes like this:I’ve been in every black holeAt the altar of the dark starMy body’s now a begging bowlThat’s begging to get back, begging to get backTo my heartTo the rhythm of my soulTo the rhythm of my unconsciousnessTo the rhythm that yearnsTo be released from control

At the moment of surrenderI folded to my kneesI did not notice the passers-byAnd they did not notice meAnd both singers sing of a vision:Bruce in “God Bless the Children”With pain the world paves us overLord let us not betrayGod bless the children with visions of the Day

Bono:At the moment of surrenderOf vision over visibilityI did not notice the passers-byAnd they did not notice me

On a final note I wanted to illustrate the imagery of Cockburns lyrics as here he describes dusk:Night comesThe mask of the worldResolves into round bits of silver on the tableRound arrow nocked against the bowRound fruit devoured by timeWhile the moon climbs

I thought that I would start an evolution of Bruce Cockburn lyrics blog of sorts. Hopefully, pretty short entries with links to the song. After his years at Berklee College of Music Bruce became a "bearded folk singer.""Going to the Country" 1969

Birds singing, I'm singing in my bonesDoesn't much matter now where I'm goingGet it when I get there is what I'll doIf I get enough I'll give some to youAnd I'm going to the country

Birds start singing and I am lost...I once taught 8th grade language arts for a Semester to at risk students in Fresno. This song was one of the poems in their textbook. I played the song for them and they cooperated by not rioting.

“What impairs our sight are habits of seeing as well as the mental
concomitants of seeing. Our sight is suffused with knowing, instead of feeling
painfully the lack of knowing what we see. The principle to be kept in mind is to know what we see rather than to seewhat we know.”-Abraham J. Heschel, The Prophets: An Introduction. vol. 1 (New York: Harper & Row, 1962), p. xi.

"...Perhaps that's a general principle: The depth of our doubt is roughly proportional to the depth of our
faith. Those with strong faith have equally strong doubts. That principle bears out in the other direction as well: People with a trivial and shallow faith usually have trivial and shallow doubts. And if you ask them, Who is this god you doubt? you'll likely find this: He's safe.” -Mark Buchanan, Your God is Too Safe, pp 67-68.

Clergy Robes and Anonymous Notes in Church
When I was a student at Princeton, I got the chance to hear a lecture delivered by Stanley Hauerwas,
a theologian whose work I knew only from the snarky comments I heard
whispered by certain professors as I waited on their tables during
faculty lunches.

Hauerwas was a like a breath of fresh air: robustly Barthian,
absolutely not a Calvinist, and he had a mouth dirtier than my own.

During the lecture, which was on discipleship, Hauerwas shot from the
hip and offered what has continued to be a guiding maxim of the
pastorate for me:

“Ministry is like being nibbled to death by ducks.
It’s just a nibble here and a nibble there but before you know it you’re missing a leg.”

I’m grateful for those auspicious words and have never forgotten
them. I once again recalled them when this morning this little gem found
its way to my desk:

Context:

In December I preached a sermon in which I used folding chairs to
illustrate my point. In the first service, the cincture of my robe kept
getting caught in the chairs so I took it off for the following
services.

I wasn’t making a statement.
I wasn’t trying to ‘go contemporary.’
I wasn’t trying offend traditional sensibilities.
I wasn’t trying to do anything but avoid breaking my leg on the altar steps.

Not wearing my robe that Sunday elicited such bad behavior, in the
form of anonymous notes left in my box, under my door, in the pew pads,
and on the pulpit, as well as gossip being brought to me fourth-hand
(‘so and so is concerned..’), that I decided not to encourage such
behavior by putting it back on.

To date, in over four months, only 1 actual living, breathing human
has approached me face-to-face to tell me how they feel about the robe.
The ratio of anonymous complaint to face-to-face encounter is about
1/300.

Before proceeding, I probably don’t needto, but I will do so anyway
and point out that 98% of my congregation are wonderfully sincere
Christians who are supportive, encouraging and want nothing but to
partner in furthering God’s mission in the world. I love working with
those 98% and I think (fingers crossed) they appreciate me, warts and
all.

Back to this week’s latest note.I could point out that leaving an anonymous complaint in the offering plate-
the plate that gets prayed over and dedicated to the Lord’s reconciling
work in the world- suggests something far more disturbing than my lack
of vestments.

I mean- would you ever stick a cranky post-it note on the communion bread?
That’s bible bad.I could point out how.. continued

One day after asking about possible new liturgical uses of a Christus Victor theme,

I have an answer:

Forget new.
Get back to Bach.

Like any theological golfer, what Bach did..

Okay, I know. I need to unpack that Bach as golfer image.
I love Scot McKnight's work, especially on the atonement.
Yet I have sometimes felt his "golf club" metaphor for theories of atonement seemed--even though making a very profound and accurate point--seemed a bit crude:

Scot McKnight wants you to have your golf bag fully
equipped—theologically speaking. That's the controlling metaphor of
McKnight's 2007 study of soteriology, A Community Called Atonement (4 stars).

Here's how the metaphor works. Each "theory" of the
Atonement is, like a particular golf club, better suited to some
situations than others. Ministering the gospel is like playing a round
of golf. Just as a golfer knows when to use a driver, a wedge, or a
putter, the way we proclaim, teach, or share the Good News should be
adapted to the situation. You can hit the ball out of a sand trap with
your driver, but why would you if you had a wedge available?

The strength of the golf-bag metaphor is that it asks us
to stop being partisan toward one particular theory of the Atonement
and to minister with the best tools at hand. McKnight is a peacemaker
and a bridge builder, which makes his book welcome. link

But I have come to agree with Frank Viola; and see that it works well.

I sometimes use Baker and Green's language of a "constellation of images" of the atonement being needed.
I sometimes apply NT Wright's language (in different context) of four speakers with adjusted volumes to the atonement.

--In light of the fact that McKnight's point in the very title, and throughout the book, is that the community needs to interpret atonement, not just individuals, one is disappointed that there was no team sport that would work better than the individual player nature of golf..Hmmm..

--I also wonder how best to communicate that atonement theories inevitably overlap and constellate/cluster/Venn--unlike use of a golf club for a particular shot, which rules out simultaneous use of another. (Or does it?? Creative golf, hmm...)

SO..Bach.

Bach apparently wrote five passions, including one for each gospel.
Matthew's was based on a satisfaction theory of atonement; John's steeped in Christus Victor imagery. Mark's survived only in text; and two were lost.

Wow, makes one wonder what we lost by not having inherited all of Bach's golf clubs.

In an article analyzing the underpinnings of CV in Bach's St. John's Passion, Calvin Stapert notes that Jesus' words "It is finished," if indeed interpreted as Chistus Victor, should obviously be a victory cry. Yet..

Bach set these words to a descending line that fittingly depicts the expiration of a dying man. But where, then, is Christus victor in this? Full article PDF here

Well, read the article to see how Bach--no theological and musical slouch-- brilliantly and musically subverted desencion and death into ascension and joy. (It's kind of a holy hemistiche. Note also that Bach weaves together three chiastic structures! What a rock star.).

Music itself may be the only medium to liturgize our message.
As Happy Lee and James Allison remind us, "theories of atonement" are better yet "liturgies."
Even though in our day, we have forgotten that "worship is not music,"
music ..especially corporate worship music...can sure be worship.
There's glory in that!

Ryan Schellenberg:

The actuality of the atonement exceeds our theologizing:

....people are more than the sum of their conscious ideas, and therefore any
account of atonement in the New Testament should be curious about how
the message of the cross connected with the rest of what makes up a
human being. Surely it is instructive here that the earliest evidence we
have for atonement piety is not theological discourse at all but rather
ritual practice, specifically, baptism and the celebration of the
Lord’s Supper, both of which predate any extant Christian text by nearly
twenty years.17
We don’t know what the earliest followers of Jesus were saying about
the atonement, but we do know that they participated ritually in his
death and resurrection—they shared in his body and blood; they joined in
his death and resurrection—and thus experienced themselves as redeemed
people.

Monday, June 23, 2014

I pray some and try hard not to be an idiot..
..or the seducer (see this, this and this) that the pastor/teacher role and expectation can inevitable invoke/evoke.

So once again I found myself buying a book at the thrift store (the price is right, and it's a place where O have learned big lessons about how and how not to pastor..that sordid story here), buying a book I wouldn't buy at full price; one with a title or cover I'm a bit embarrassed by..

This time it was "The Art of Seduction"...which I bought to help me in my reduction of seduction.
Very Screwtape-ian..and MacPhisto-esque of me, eh?

(There are no pictures in the book, and it is SFW..unless you are a pastor!)

Oh, one of the others in the stack I was concerned the clerk might misundertand also.

It was "No One Left to Lie to: The Triangulations of William Jefferson Clinton,"making the case for Clinton's impeachment.What I didn't want the clerk to think it that I was some conservative who automatically hates liberals. What I love about the book it makes an articulate and compelling case; argues not so much from sex but violence (violence to cover up sex)..and it is written by a liberal (Oh, there's one more good book on Clinton by a liberal..a Jew who had voted for him, but wouldn't again).

The author makes the case that Clinton was a master at "staging" things (p. 101); even using his daughter as a "prop" (78)...and these were seductions and "detractions" of the public to cover up his private seductions.I try to be so careful and prayerful that I don't stage things, or use things/people as props. But that's what we pastors do by default (Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain..)See these links on "stage":

And on "props," Vincent J., Vera has already said it...sung it (embedded below).I don't know if VV ever saw the double meaning of "taking the props" home, but if you think of "props" in the vernacular sense of "Kudos" "appreciation" and "proper respect" those too are items that pastors take home at their own risk.....and self-seduction.

Hat tip to Beth for my title; and my apologies to her for my twisting it.
Her wonderful chapter on "Where the Leitourgua has No Name: U2 Live" should be read well by the well-read (it's in this book; for more on leitourgia, see this),

Actually, the way I nodded to her title and tweaked it is itself perhaps a cheap example of the liturgical experimentation I am encouraging below. Hopefully you will get the reference.
(As Beth herself has confessed about me, I can be "ever-prolix" (:..)

Paul Ryan blogs:

One ordinary Sunday morning, I sat in my pew praying customary words of
confession and hearing familiar words of assurance. My pastor
announced, as he did every Sunday, “God assures us with these words of
pardon . . .” But at that moment, the words surprised me. Immediately, I
turned to my wife and whispered excitedly, “Pardon! That’s an image of
the atonement!”
I had been studying notes outlining five images of the atonement: Christus Victor,
ransom, penal substitution, sacrifice, and moral example. My professor,
John Witvliet, had encouraged us to consider how we might balance these
images in worship. That morning, I realized that the word pardon
is a courtroom image (penal substitution). And I realized that we had
been introducing our words of assurance with this image exclusively.
Since that day, I’ve been reflecting on how we might enrich and balance
our confession through attention to other images of the atonement... LINK

SOO..what would it sound/look like to shamelessly incorporate into corporate worship/leitourgia a shameless

I don't know what it would look ;ike..maybe a high church Zoo TV? (:Think of ...and suggest below...some practical examples of such creative calls to worship, collects etc..

I know this next example is taking it too far; but I remember Shawn Rabon and I thinking out loud how to gently satirize (Yes, I know "gently satirize" is oxymoronic, but...) the tendency of some Christians to, during prayer meetings, address Satan more than God. We wondered if opening a meeting with "Dear Satan" would make the point. (:

I (left) am honored to host a new series by guest poster Mark DeRaud (right)

Click Mark's name under "topical diving" at right for more on Mark

Part I, click herePart 2 click herePart 3 below: The Atonement Part 3: Reintroducing the "Good" in the Good News of the Gospel by Mark DeRaud

"[Christ] gave Himself for our sins, that He might deliver us out of this present evil age..." Galatians 1:4

New
understanding of the Atonement reorients us from concern for life
hereafter (Do you know where your will spend eternity?) to the 'here'
and 'after'......Life, life in the present, in the New Covenant of the
Holy Spirit (Isaiah 59:21). Now.

"Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be
done on earth as it is in heaven," invokes heaven coming to earth rather
than us going to heaven.

Just prior to the Reformation (launch in
1517) Michelangelo was in Rome creating his masterful mural on the
Sistine Chapel ceiling under the auspices of Pope Julius II.

Needing
to fund Michelangelo, the expansion of St. Peter's
Basilica and
assorted military campaigns Pope Julius II stepped up the sale of
indulgences to raise money.

What better sales program was there
but to turn up the fires of Purgatory's cleansing flames, then offer
indulgences for a price, to quench them? Reformers had had enough and
Luther ignited a revolt.

While Luther maintained belief in
Purgatory, Reformers eventually abandoned Purgatory along with their
rejection of indulgent sales, leaving us to inherit a pre-occupation
with hell-fire, eclipsing the good news gospel message that God's
Kingdom has arrived for the taking, now.

The Atonement, then, has
been relieved of its 'earthiness'. The Atonement, even as administered
under the Old Covenant, is popularly understood as God's means to
transfer souls into heaven through Christ's blood.

So strong is
this concept that we gloss over scripture that argue the Atonement is
meant to transfer us, or better, Jews, from the Old Covenant into the
New, here on earth, here on earth in the Spirit, with eternal life
secured for a distant Final Judgment. Gentiles are then invited to join
the family of faith.
This view, Atonement as a transference from
the Covenant of Law to the Covenant of Grace (Charis, from where we get
Charisma) better aligns our evangelism efforts to those of Christ and
the Kingdom of God He preached, "on earth as it is in heaven."

Good News! You have access to the love, power and gifts of God, here on earth as it is in heaven, secured by Christ's atonement.

"For He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the Kingdom of His beloved Son." Colossians 1:13

"But if I cast out demons by the Spirit of God," says Jesus, "then the Kingdom of God has come upon you." Matthew 12:28by Mark DeRaud

Dumb disclaimer:

It should go without saying...but i wouldn't want it to... that since this blog is a Spiritaneous place to throw out thoughts/feelings/articles "in process," it does not represent any of the fine institutions you see by my profile that I am affiliated with (Heck, it may not even represent me! (:........). The blog is merely an attempt to subvert subversion and "push toward the unobvious" (Thanks, Tim N. for that phrase) on the six hot topics listed at the top of the page....Welcome, engage it, and don't be offended (for the wrong reason, anyway!)